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The Binghampton neighborhood is inching closer to landing a grocery store as plans for a neighborhood retail center there come into clearer focus.

The Binghampton Development Corp. has signed a “letter of intent” with an unidentified national supermarket chain to build a store at the corner of Sam Cooper Boulevard and Tillman Street. It also is pursuing other retailers for the planned development that will bring more goods and jobs to the community.

In April, Rachel Diller, managing director of the urban investment group at Goldman Sachs, received a phone call in her New York office from officials at Phoenix-based Dudley Ventures.

The executives at Dudley Ventures, which specializes in large tax-credit supported projects, were arranging financing for the $200 million effort to transform the old Sears Crosstown property and wanted to know if the New York-based investment bank was interested.

Almost three years ago, former elementary school art teacher Erin Harris saw a video about children in Memphis who were working with an artist to start a sculpture garden. She still recalls the happy sight of a few boys in the video throwing balloons filled with paint at an old fence, as well as the reaction the footage generated from her.

The former Cadence Bank branch on Court Avenue Downtown is the new and bigger home for Community LIFT, the local intermediary with community development corporations founded by a coalition of nonprofits and the city of Memphis four years ago.

Editor’s Note: This column will appear Tuesdays through April in honor of Sustainability Month for Memphis and Shelby County.

As the Mid-South’s philanthropic partner since 1969, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis is clearly here to stay. That’s why we are interested in initiatives that make our area more livable and connected right now and for future generations.

Laurie Williams, adult education coordinator at Memphis Botanic Garden, was recently awarded the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council’s President’s Award for her contribution to establishing and maintaining viable community forests in Tennessee. Williams was one of seven individuals the urban forestry council honored this year.

The Community Foundation of Greater Memphis made it easier for a dozen Memphis nonprofits to continue the good they do in the community when it announced the recipients of this year’s GiVE 365 grantees last week.

The history at the Four-Way Restaurant is as rich and soulful as the food.

The walls of the South Memphis institution are decorated with photographs of politicians, athletes, entertainers, business leaders and civil rights icons – including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – who made the famous restaurant at Mississippi Boulevard and Walker Avenue a “home away from home.”

The busiest time of the year along the Shelby Farms Greenline is also the busiest time of the year for Cheffie’s, an example of a business that is a direct beneficiary of being near the Tillman Street end of the greenline that extends east to Shelby Farms Park.

The concrete surface of the loading dock at Power & Tel on Broad Avenue isn’t good for ballet dancing.

So the dancers with Collage Dance Collective went with modern dance instead Wednesday, May 22, as the Broad Avenue Arts District formally announced a $350,000 grant from ArtPlace America that will turn part of the loading dock into a dance performance stage.

A new craft brewery is coming to one of Memphis’ up-and-coming areas – the Broad Avenue Historic District.

Wiseacre Brewing Co., a concept from brothers Kellan Bartosch and Davin Bartosch, has leased 13,000 square feet at 2783 Broad Ave. and is planning to open by late 2013. They chose the old warehouse for its “big open space” and the Binghampton neighborhood for its community appeal.

By the time Crosstown Arts occupies space in the 1.5 million-square-foot Sears Crosstown building, it will have completed a solid test run of promoting arts-based community and economic development in Midtown.

A year ago, Loeb Properties Inc. was granted the green light from Memphis City Council for the funds necessary to construct a parking lot and detention pond west of Cooper Street – the last component in the more than $30 million public/private partnership to revitalize the once thriving Overton Square district.

Approaching the second anniversary of “New Face for an Old Broad” and the Historic Broad Avenue Business Association’s painting of its own bike lanes, the Binghampton district has seen activity increase exponentially on several fronts.

On a recent humid September morning, a group of casually dressed students sat cross-legged in a field on the Rhodes College campus, deeply engaged in a discussion about the various preparation methods and cultural associations of yams.

Two Memphis neighborhood revitalization efforts will split $225,000 in federal funds awarded Monday, Aug. 6, to the Greater Memphis Partnership – a coalition of local agencies.

The grants are through the Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, a White House initiative directed at distressed neighborhoods. The Greater Memphis Partnership will match the federal funding for a total of $450,000 that goes for technical assistance on revitalization plans in Binghampton and Frayser.

Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-South plans to grant 220 wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions this year.

On Thursday, May 24, the Memphis Area Association of Realtors Commercial Council was able to witness one of those wishes being granted firsthand at Windyke Country Club, as well as donate enough funds to share the power of three additional wishes.

Healthy Memphis Common Table held its annual meeting Tuesday, May 22, at the University of Memphis to discuss health-related challenges facing citizens.

The organization is a nonprofit, regional health collaborative working to improve the quality of primary care; empower patients and caregivers; fight childhood obesity; reduce the rate of chronic diseases; and eliminate food deserts in low-income neighborhoods.

The board governing The Regional Medical Center at Memphis has formed an ad hoc committee to review and make recommendations regarding the amount of business the hospital conducts with minority-owned companies.

This year marks a decade of existence for the Memphis Area Association of Realtors’ Commercial Council, the trade organization for the commercial real estate profession and its related sectors.

The council has about 325 members whose professions include commercial developers, brokers, property managers and other related CRE careers. Two of the council’s main events each year are the Commercial Property Forecast Summit, held in February, and the Pinnacle Awards, which honor the highest-producing commercial brokers each spring.

Nonprofit GrowMemphis has teamed up with Memphis Housing and Community Development to grant $5,000 to new community garden projects in 2012. Applications for the grants will be accepted through Jan. 31. New garden projects can apply for as much as $1,500 in equipment and supplies and as much as $1,500 for site improvements.

The city of Memphis has a $50-a-lot strategy for mowing vacant lots in eight parts of the city through community development corporations in those parts of town.

The city’s Division of Community Enhancement began working with neighborhood associations across the city this summer to identify more than 300 overgrown lots. Each association identified such lots in a 25-square-block area to clear them in one concentrated effort.

When Peter Schutt bought The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc. from his father John Paul “Jack” Jones in 1994, it marked the fourth generation of ownership for the family-run business whose story dates back more than a century.

By 2050, it’s projected all minorities combined will represent more than 50 percent of the U.S. population, and as the United States moves closer to becoming a minority-majority nation, the growing Hispanic population is increasingly becoming a major power player in the new economy.

Operation: Safe Community, launched by the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, began in 2006 with a goal to decrease blight and increase neighborhood restoration. That goal is now being reached after replacing dilapidated buildings and opening a farmers market in an abandoned gas station. Organizations such as First Baptist Church – Broad, led by Pastor Keith Norman, have also played an important role in Binghampton’s transformation.

Stringer Nursery and Garden Center has donated its 23,000-square-foot greenhouse to Urban Farms in Binghampton. The greenhouse was scheduled to be disassembled and transported to the Urban Farms’ location on 198 Wills St. Saturday, July 16, according to Urban Farms’ Facebook page. Barnhart Crane and Rigging provided equipment to help volunteers and project management move the greenhouse to its new location.

When the group of architects and planners working on a bicycle-pedestrian path connecting the Shelby Farms Greenline with Overton Park went beyond the end of the Greenline onto Tillman Street recently, they had a Memphis Police bicycle escort.

On a humid late May afternoon that signaled the imminent arrival of a sweltering Memphis summer, Burundi native Sedekia Imanairakiza seemed to be in his element, skillfully nurturing the soil and sowing the seeds that will yield fruitful summer crops at Urban Farms, a community garden in the heart of the city.

The emergence of the Broad Avenue Arts District as a hub of arts, culture and community continues to take shape, and the latest focal point is a former abandoned gas station at Broad and Tillman Street.

Farmers markets have typically been seen as the domain of middle-class, college-educated, health-conscious consumers concerned about reducing their carbon footprint, knowing the origin of their food and supporting local farmers committed to sustainable practices.

A national figure in the growing discussion of the American green economy will speak about green jobs serving all races and classes in Memphis Saturday.

Van Jones, who is best known as the author of “The Green-Collar Economy” and as President Barack Obama’s former green jobs adviser, will give the keynote address at the 29th anniversary gala of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (MSPJC) to be held at First Congregational Church at 6 p.m.

When Rick Donlon and three other newly minted doctors came to Memphis in the mid-1990s, they were attracted by circumstances most might not find so attractive: the largest concentration of medically-underserved communities in the state.

Its title may sound like a Woody Allen movie, but an innovative, two-day street festival in a resurging Midtown neighborhood may draw in new businesses via bike traffic.

“A New Face for an Old Broad,” to be held from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, will temporarily exhibit Broad Avenue as a connector between the terminus of the Shelby Farms Greenline and Overton Park.

Donald O’Conner may not be running for office, but he wants your vote. In fact, he would like your vote every day now through Halloween.

O’Conner, director of Watoto Memphis Performing Arts Academy, is the Memphis nominee for Feeding Dreams, a contest put on by General Mills Corp. to recognize black community leaders who work to create better neighborhoods.

Federal stimulus money financed the construction of two dental clinics for Christ Community Health Services, but the 24 permanent positions created by the project will carry on after that funding has run its course.

Cannon Allen grew up with an idea that he might end up in the legal field, but a broad range of cases in commercial litigation paved the way for far-reaching experiences in entrepreneurship, transportation and logistics, and community building.

Urban gardening efforts in Binghampton have prompted city officials to consider revising proposed land use ordinances that could stymie the greening of Memphis.

Planning officials spotted holes in the proposed laws when the Binghampton Development Corp. and Christ Community Health Services approached the city about starting a commercial gardening operation, which would create jobs and provide fresh foods in Binghampton, an area with a high poverty rate and no grocery store.

No matter what happens with the overall redevelopment of the Mid-South Fairgrounds – a project that could be scaled back in light of the economy – the plan to build the Kroc Center of Memphis is gaining steam.

Two generations ago, Darrell Cobbins’ grandfather developed one of Memphis’ first black middle-income communities called Lakeview Gardens.

Over the next couple of years, Cobbins, a commercial real estate developer and broker, will bring a 133-unit senior housing facility to Binghampton, and he’ll pay homage to his real estate lineage by calling it Lakeview Estates.

TDN: When Sam Cooper was extended to East Parkway, what did that do to the Broad Avenue business community?

DI: Before they changed the expressway, our business was absolutely booming. We were packed. Since they changed that, not only did it affect our business, but a lot of the local businesses have closed down. We've been here 30 years, but some of the other businesses that were here - like the silk-screening place that was nearby, it's gone.

The city's model design project for the Broad Avenue area represents a major opportunity for the residents and businesses of Binghampton. The Broad Avenue area has suffered from the flight and blight experienced across the inner-city, but was made worse by the extension of Sam Cooper Boulevard in 2002 and the resulting isolation of the Broad area. However, redevelopment efforts, new artist owners, an active business association and a new elementary school all offer hope that the revitalization of the Broad Avenue area can take hold and improve the surrounding Binghampton community.

Road projects often are lauded by civic leaders as catalysts for community development. But don't tell that to citizens in the Broad Avenue corridor.

Residents and business owners in the area have faced myriad problems over the years that were brought about by roadway decisions. First, the Interstate 40 project that was abruptly halted in the 1970s literally split the community. More recently, the extension of Sam Cooper Boulevard shifted traffic from Broad Avenuen in 2002, essentially cutting off the Binghampton neighborhood's livelihood.

The next phase of bringing Memphis and Shelby County's development codes up to date hearkens back to the 19th century, when proctors at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris are said to have circulated a cart or charrette into which students would place their artwork.

64. Archived Article: Binghampton (lead) - Monday, June 10, 2002 Poplar Ave Poplar shops in Binghampton seeing revival By SUE PEASE The Daily News When John "Booth" Outlan, Midtown Wine and Spirits owner, moved into his store two years ago, he called it a dump. The circa 1940 signage outside and the anc...

65. Archived Article: Comm Focus - Friday, January 18, 2002 By JENNIFER MURLEY Organization finds a place it can call home By JENNIFER MURLEY The Daily News Last spring, Freddie Mae Terrells life was forever changed. It all began with an inquiry about a few much-needed home repairs through a Christian commun...

66. Archived Article: Binghampton (lead) - Tuesday, January 15, 2002 New police precinct on tap for Binghampton New police precinct on tap for Binghampton By MARY DANDO The Daily News The new year started off on a good note for the Binghampton neighborhood. Construction began on a $3.3 million police precinct at 426 ...

67. Archived Article: Broad (lead) - Tuesday, April 17, 2001 New Sam Cooper Parkway plan comes before city council Council to hear new Sam Cooper plan By MARY DANDO The Daily News The final draft of the Midtown Corridor East Redevelopment Plan will be considered by the Memphis City Council at a public hearing...

68. Archived Article: Real Focus (cdc) - Tuesday, March 06, 2001 The stories all have a similar ring to them City CDCs providing many redevelopment needs By JENNIFER MURLEY The Daily News The stories all have a similar ring. "We used to have prostitutes walking up and down these streets." "That pla...

69. Archived Article: Weed (bott) - Tuesday, March 09, 1999 By STACEY PETSCHAUER New designation will plant seeds of hope By STACEY PETSCHAUER The Daily News The city of Memphis is eligible for new funding and resources that will help it fight crime and revitalize neighborhoods through its recognition by the...

70. Archived Article: Hands On Chg - Monday, November 10, 1997 Hands On Memphis is seeking volunteers for its Day of Community Healing on Nov Hands On Memphis seeks volunteers for cleanup project By CAMILLE H. GAMBLE The Daily News Hands On Memphis is seeking volunteers for its Day of Community Healing on Nov. ...